Roman Reigns has been pushed to the moon and back by WWE over the course of the past two years, and it is proven by him headlining the last two WrestleMania main events. At WrestleMania 32 , he won the WWE World Heavyweight Title and fans are still booing him out of every building he enters. Now, it appears as if the locker room isn’t overly fond of the new champion either as he’s getting some heat from backstage.
If someone does something wrong in their own professional wrestling career, it’s one thing and getting reprimanded by officials is understandable. To get yelled at and chastised for not being able to build or advance someone else is another thing entirely.
Daily Wrestling News reported that right before WrestleMania 32 , Reigns was getting serious heat from the locker room because of others being reprimanded for not being able to get him over.
With Reigns not getting over with the fans, WWE has continued to try to push him as the face of the company. They want him to be an icon, a role model, and the one that leads the company into the future, but it just isn’t working.
That being said, other superstars are getting chewed out after being in the ring with Reigns and not being able to get him cheered or appreciated. The time has now come of them being sick and tired of that happening, and they’re just done with it.
Making things even worse is that a lot of wrestlers backstage were not happy that Reigns was off WWE television for a number of weeks leading up to WrestleMania 32 . It’s believed that someone in the main event title match really should have been present for the build-up.
Yes, Reigns was off of television due to having necessary surgery, but it didn’t make the backstage heat on him any less. The locker room felt as if he shouldn’t have stayed in the main event if he couldn’t even be on TV to promote his spot.
Even with all that time he was off TV and even with the locker room heat on Roman Reigns, he was the main event at WrestleMania 32 and now the WWE World Heavyweight Champion. No matter what, WWE is insistent on making him a star no matter what anyone thinks of him.
A number of people have spoken out and believe that Reigns could benefit from a major heel turn as they feel it would help his character. “Stone Cold” Steve Austin is one of those who feel that way and he thinks it would help him get over more as a babyface in the future.
Reigns was recently a guest on Ring Rust Radio and was asked about being a heel and whether he feels it would be going against the fans.
“You know, I don’t look at it as turning on the fans, because I don’t think they have turned on me. I still have a really large fan base and supporters that dig what I do. They love my matches and are entertained by my segments. For me, I think I need to stick with what I have been doing. We live in a world where everybody has an opinion and an opportunity to voice their opinions so it becomes a very critical era that we live in. For me, I know who I am, where I want to go, so I am just going to stick to my guns and keep doing what I am doing. It’s making for a loud reaction and that’s all that matters.”
As he said on Monday Night Raw , he’s not a bad guy or a good guy, but he’s just the guy. That almost seems like a person who doesn’t care about the fans or what they think, and it could lead to a heel turn in the future.
Right now, Roman Reigns is the face of WWE as the new World Champion, and the company is going to keep pushing him no matter what. A heel turn could shake things up and have the fans receive him a bit better, but the more important thing is the locker room. If he keeps getting heat from backstage and ostracizes himself, then his career may not end up lasting much longer.
[Image via WWE]